Food for Thought: The Tower

Hello Guardian comrades. It’s time to refill prescriptions and feed our brains the drugs that are Destiny speculations. This time, we are gonna think long and hard about The Tower and how deeply, or rather how highly intricate it may be. (Get it? Because The Tower is high and tall? So it’s highly intricate? :3 … :c Okay..)

Old News

Before we get into the wonderful world of ‘what if’s’ n such, lets take a gander at what we know thus far. The Tower is located within the walls of the last safe city on Earth. It is a third person safe haven meant for Guardians to come back to after a long days worth of rampant alien carnage. A place, where you can kick off your boots, and then sell them to one of the many vendors you will have at your disposal, or trade them with your fellow Guardians who will no doubt be aroused beyond reason when you slip on those sexy new lvl 20 boots of swiftness with 10% movement speed increase. This is the place you will call home. Your ship will dock hear, your teachers will ‘learn ya’ here, and stories will be exchanged like that of medieval taverns, crowded with knights telling tales of battles with dragons.

In the “Places of Destiny” article from Gameinformer, they reveal that there are differently themed districts that everyone can visit. (Perhaps a ship and hangar district, weapons district, and abilities district?) A plaza is confirmed as a spot where everybody meets and first lands after returning from their adventures, and from there, there are these offshoots that lead to places made to represent the three different classes. Perhaps the class areas are the differently themed districts they mentioned earlier. But if that’s the case, are Titans allowed in the Warlock area? Because they did say that they are places everyone can visit. Or perhaps both elements are combined. The Titans take care of ships and hangar business, Hunters deal with guns and ammo, and Warlocks handle the traveler abilities and teachings each within their own district. Time will tell.

New News

In regards to more recent info, The Tower will have emissaries. What do these emissaries do? Well, read this piece of awesome right here. Deej writes in his 3/21/14 weekly update, “I padded up to his desk and caught him conjuring the vivid evidence of one of the Tower’s many important guests… Imagine a world in which very specific moments of action become available to you when you least expect them. Unique missions, with unique rewards, will present themselves. Emissaries appear for a short period of time. Then, they’re gone, like the spirit of a Fallen Captain, carried away by the wind.” This was revealed to showcase the kinds of things that will happen to make this world truly come alive and it got me more excited about The Tower. But not as excited as I got, when Deej mentioned The Tower again in his very next weekly update. He writes, “The Tower will be your bazaar. Overlooking the city, you’ll find your shelter and supply in a bustling marketplace of merchants who trade in the industry of building your legend. Need deadlier weapons? Sturdier armor? Deeper secrets for how to channel the energies of creation as a force of destruction? There’s a vendor for that. And more. Tyson doesn’t let me talk about how awesome the Tower will actually be.”

Did you read that last sentence? After all the things already revealed on The Tower, there are still secrets and details we haven’t been privy to yet! And apparently it’s supposed to show how truly awesome of a place it will be. If you’re anything like me, you imagined a place like the shopping district in one of WoW’s capitals. Yes, we all knew there were going to be vendors, yes it’ll be a safe place to relax, meet people and show off gear. These are all things revealed and expected. So, in order to guess at what might make The Tower uniquely awesome, we must think beyond the expected.

The Beyond

Let’s get sidetracked for a moment. Don’t worry, I’ll bring it full circle. Two other things that Bungie has been tight lipped about, is what makes this game a living breathing world, and all the “activities for every mood.” In one of Deej’s weekly updates, he really emphasized that there are activities for EVERY mood. When I think of games that have those kind of activities, I think of Grand Theft Auto 5.

Grand Theft Auto 5 is a perfect example of a game that has an activity for every mood. You can race cars, boats, planes, bikes, bicycles, parachutes. Play a death match, play tennis, gamble, get drunk, commit crimes, hang out and more. Considering Deej emphasized that there are activities for EVERY mood, he couldn’t have just been talking about the standard game modes and story missions. What if I’m not in the MOOD to kill anything? Maybe I want to test my Shrike skills in a race across Mars. Maybe I’m feeling risky, like I want to gamble. Now, is it crazy to think that while we are at The Tower we could potentially gamble our Glimmer? Or even our weapons? Pink slips for our ships? There are so many possibilities, but one things for sure. Expect a LOT of very different things to do.

Anyways, I reckon we’ll see interesting things such as gambling and mini games at The Tower. As cool as that is, I still feel like theres something more to The Tower that makes it so awesome. Yes, mini games are cool, but it’s not as if that hasn’t been done before. So what has Tyson kept from us that makes The Tower unlike anything we’ve seen before?

A Living Breathing World.

When I imagined The Tower, I imagined Guardians standing around, talking, trading, showing off, dancing. All the things you would expect to find by the auction house in an MMO. But this is Destiny. This is a living breathing world. You tell me what looks more alive: A spot where a bunch of guardians are standing around or sitting their asses on the ground? Or a place where Guardians can actually meet up and chat at their own favorite table out in the plaza? Take a look at this fan art. You cannot tell me that you don’t want to have a bad ass meeting like that! It’s little details like that which would heighten the feeling of a real living world.

The Meeting

That’s all the brain candy I have left to offer. Oh, and, totally off topic, but in the latest weekly update Deej was asked about a collectors edition of the game, and he replied “Ask again next week.” which hopefully means yes, and that we’ll see it soon. So keep an eye out for that! Until next time brave Guardians.